I learned that I had a project of too much complexity. The testers/gamers couldn't figure out what was happening in Pantheon, and I did not invest enough time in relation to this complexity (aka didn't get finished). On the other hand I had a very complex game, not only in relation to the user interface but also in code and internal structure. And I'm kinda proud that i was able to handle this kind of project all on my own. I also think that this would have not been possible in this way with a c like language (as ppl in the chat know i don't like these). Next time i will make something simpler, and also use more time on the projecting phase, nothing beats a good thought out concept.

Time to raise this thread back from the dead. Some of you learned some things in 2003. Did you apply that to 2004? And what did you learn in 2004? (Besides that people love to hate bugs.) Before answering, be sure to read all the comments from 2003.

1) Learn to use the contest to gauge your own strengths, weaknesses, and limitations as a developer. Personally, I found that I can easily project my visions of gameplay into the game and throw in a dash of personal style to boot. My weakness has to do with my artistic talent, and the fact that I don't have any.

Holmes Wrote:If you don't have an Artist, get one!

Amen. Leading into:

2) Team up. Have at least one programmer and one artist. Ideally, have a musician and some web development skills amongst you as well. Being a lone wolf sucks. Even if you CAN do everything, you won't be able to do it as fast as two people. Plus, it's burnout protection. Motivation is contagious. So team up!

3) For uDevGames 2005, the winning entry will feature you fighting off drunken zombie insects in a nanoscopic mining spaceship in Ancient Greece. While you're doing this you have to use your set of giant pincers to dig through the snow and find all the gold nuggets and send them in a horse & cart to Bristol, before the whole freakin' place fills up with water. You heard it here first!

JustinFic Wrote:3) For uDevGames 2005, the winning entry will feature you fighting off drunken zombie insects in a nanoscopic mining spaceship in Ancient Greece. While you're doing this you have to use your set of giant pincers to dig through the snow and find all the gold nuggets and send them in a horse & cart to Bristol, before the whole freakin' place fills up with water. You heard it here first!

Gameplay. Gameplay. Gameplay. At least 0.09 more!
Also:
* Add features sooner, instead of waiting for bug reports before enabling them
* In-game instructions!
* Bullet-time isn't fun for everyone... at least the way I implemented it...
* SDL_mixer has built-in OGG support... I shouldn't have spent an entire week trying to build a custom version of OpenAL to play it when it was already available in the sound API I was using to begin with!
* Blender export scripts work fine until you need them.
* Texturing models is HARD without the proper tools.

Finally, gameplay can mean "simple". If it doesn't, a tutorial level is a must...

PowerMacX Wrote:* Bullet-time isn't fun for everyone... at least the way I implemented it...
* SDL_mixer has built-in OGG support... I shouldn't have spent an entire week trying to build a custom version of OpenAL to play it when it was already available in the sound API I was using to begin with!
* Texturing models is HARD without the proper tools.

A couple notes here- I felt there was not any point for bullet-time in your game, since you didn't have to do anything particularly intricate to avoid enemies. Since it didn't help you any, it just wasted your time (this is similar to bullet-time in Prince of Persia/Sands of Time- my friends and I played through the game and almost never used the feature in combat, just for dodging traps, since intricate movement was required. In Max Payne you need it for jumping corners, as you'd again need intricate movements to avoid all the incoming enemy shots. Bullets moved a lot faster in Max Payne than Okugai, as well, if I recall correctly.)

SDL_mixer does support OGG, but SDL_mixer functions very poorly and eats up a lot of CPU. It does work great if you just want something very simple and fast to get up (I think I implemented Audio in my game in about an hour, tops.)

Texturing is probably easiest if you have something to give you a texture atlas. The way I ended up going is just linear-mapping different parts of my models, which probably didn't look as good as it could, but was certain sufficient.

I have to agree with this for the most part, but I think if you have some experience with ODE or OpenAL you probably can use them without a hitch. I used ODE for the first time in this project, and it worked great for me. Your problem was that you made all cars boxes, which hurt the dynamics. OpenAL I heard a lot of people had success with.

I have to echo what a lot of people are saying- if you spend a lot of time going for rich, intricate gameplay, you are leaving yourself open for losing on polish, which in turn probably determines a weight on the rest of your categories (it's a lot easier to be superficial about judging, so a lot of people will only notice the polish, and not give much thought to much else.) This is just if you want to win, though, but I think there are other goals of the contest, such as finally getting to try and make a game that you've been itching to.

phydeaux Wrote:A couple notes here- I felt there was not any point for bullet-time in your game, since you didn't have to do anything particularly intricate to avoid enemies. Since it didn't help you any, it just wasted your time (this is similar to bullet-time in Prince of Persia/Sands of Time- my friends and I played through the game and almost never used the feature in combat, just for dodging traps, since intricate movement was required. In Max Payne you need it for jumping corners, as you'd again need intricate movements to avoid all the incoming enemy shots. Bullets moved a lot faster in Max Payne than Okugai, as well, if I recall correctly.)

I know, I was only going to implement bullet-time when you were about to die, so you could "transfer your spirit to another body", but couldn't finish it on time. Still, I found it useful when trying to get to the ship with low health, especially on level 3.

phydeaux Wrote:SDL_mixer does support OGG, but SDL_mixer functions very poorly and eats up a lot of CPU. It does work great if you just want something very simple and fast to get up (I think I implemented Audio in my game in about an hour, tops.)

I made a very simple C++ wrapper for OpenAL, which I used on my CMG entry wanna-be "Failed", but the 3D effects were very disappointing to say the least. As for SDL_mixer eating a lot of CPU, you're probably right, but the game was mostly GPU bound, so I could spare a few CPU cicles

phydeaux Wrote:Texturing is probably easiest if you have something to give you a texture atlas. The way I ended up going is just linear-mapping different parts of my models, which probably didn't look as good as it could, but was certain sufficient.

My solution: sphere mapping

phydeaux Wrote:I have to echo what a lot of people are saying- if you spend a lot of time going for rich, intricate gameplay, you are leaving yourself open for losing on polish, which in turn probably determines a weight on the rest of your categories (it's a lot easier to be superficial about judging, so a lot of people will only notice the polish, and not give much thought to much else.) This is just if you want to win, though, but I think there are other goals of the contest, such as finally getting to try and make a game that you've been itching to.

I just saw the polish scores... I want to see that 3rd decimal!
I guess I should have added a background picture to my .dmg